A male teacher stands in front of the blackboard teaching his class.

financing for development

For decades, international targets for rich countries to help fund poverty reduction, via so-called ‘Official Development Assistance’ or ODA, have been largely missed, and ODA is now on a downward path. But ODA alone has never been the only answer, and countries must be able to fund their own national priorities such as nutrition, health and education. Yet this is often impossible, with barriers such as heavy debt burdens, limited public spending, and imposed austerity holding countries back. A once-in-a-decade opportunity is coming up at the end of June, with a ‘Financing For Development’ Conference in Seville, Spain. The UK must join other governments at the conference in overthrowing these barriers to more equitable global prosperity.

what

many countries can’t afford to fund essentials such as health, nutrition and education because of limited budgets and unfair economic barriers

who

governments around the world are coming together in June to agree new ways to fund poverty reduction and increase economic development

how

ask the UK Government to play a leading role at the June conference to help dismantle the unfair systems that keep people in poverty

the challenge of financing international development goals

In 2015, the international community agreed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a comprehensive set of targets to be reached by 2030. The financial resources needed to do this are far greater than could ever be achieved by ‘overseas aid’ alone – involving investments by governments, businesses, and organisations such as international finance institutions (IFIs), as well as reforms to the world’s economic and financial systems that are currently stacked in favour of wealthy countries and corporations.

The economic barriers that hinder countries from investing in health, nutrition, education and other public goods are many, including: excessive debt repayments; insufficient tax returns; loopholes that enable corporations to avoid paying tax in places where they operate; and the imposition of strict conditions on loans from IFIs that deregulate markets and limit public expenditure. Taken together, these problems severely limit many lower-income countries’ ability to fund the SDGs, reduce their dependence on ODA, and sustainably address the funding gap.

the challenge to funding the SDGs

Since 1970, there has been a target for wealthy countries to spend 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) on ODA – the ‘international aid’ that is considered their minimum contribution to achieving international development targets and reducing global poverty. Yet this has rarely been achieved, and the UK’s ODA budget is now set to drop to 0.3% in 2027.

International financial flows of many trillions, not billions, are needed to achieve the SDGs. This dwarfs the funding available from ODA, and requires many structural changes to the global economy, including reforms on tax, debt, and the international financial architecture that would enable countries in the Global South to increase their public spending.

Repayment of debt interest hampers the ability of many countries to fund things like health and education and many are facing a debt crisis. For example, the 16 countries most affected by food crises spent 1.9 times the amount on external public debt servicing than they do on health and nutrition. The current system of managing unsustainable debt repayments is inadequate, and a United Nations sovereign debt restructuring mechanism is needed to enable heavily-indebted low income countries to restructure or reduce their debt.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other IFIs have historically insisted that countries reduce public spending as conditions of loans. This hits public services such as health and education, for example, freezing teacher numbers and teachers’ wages. The IMF must reform its approach to debt sustainability to ensure that policies tied to loans do not hinder low-income countries’ ability to fund essential public services.

Many countries struggle to fund public services because of low tax revenues. Every year, $483 billion is lost in tax to corporations and the super-rich through tax havens. Over $30 billion of this is lost by 27 low income and 36 lower-middle income countries. If these countries did not lose this money every year and instead spent 20% of that extra tax on education, over 20 million more children could go to primary school. A UN tax convention is urgently needed to close these tax loopholes.

Every 10 years, the world holds a ‘Financing For Development’ Conference, and this year, the Fourth Financing for Development Conference in Seville, Spain at the end of June 2025 is a chance to address the major barriers to investments that people and communities around the world need in order to thrive.

the role of the UK in financing the SDGs

The UK must strongly push for the reforms needed to make the global financial system fairer and more effective. The UK is well positioned to influence negotiations at the Conference and to put pressure on existing institutions to do more to help close the gap on development financing.

You can help by urging the UK Government to ensure high-level political attendance at the June Conference and to work with other countries to reform the global financial architecture, developing an effective UN mechanism for debt relief, ending harmful conditions on loans to lower-income countries by IFIs, and ending tax loopholes that limit public expenditure.

Please write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt. Hon. Rachel Reeves MP, and the Foreign Secretary, Rt. Hon. David Lammy MP, urging the UK Government to use its influence at the ‘Financing for Development’ Conference to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Contact details:

Rt. Hon. Rachel Reeves MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ, email [email protected]

Rt. Hon. David Lammy MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH, email: [email protected]

take action!

write to the Chancellor and Foreign Secretary about the need for a global financial reset to fund the Sustainable Development Goals

ask them to work with other countries at the June ‘Financing For Development’ Conference to end the barriers to achieving the SDGs

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we’re here to support you!

If you have any questions or need support or advice in writing your letter, please contact Naveed Chaudhri, Head of Campaigns, at [email protected].

addressing the teacher shortage through domestic resourcing

The shortage of qualified teachers represents one of the greatest barriers to universal primary and secondary education, as teacher recruitment and retention have not kept pace with enrolment. In low income countries, a primary school teacher has an average of 52 pupils per class. An estimated 44 million additional teachers are needed to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030, including 15 million teachers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Improving domestic resourcing is central to addressing this crisis. Inadequate and unsustainable financing can lead to teachers going months without a regular and adequate salary, forcing teachers to find alternative sources of income and classrooms to close.

From the National Education Union’s report ‘Prioritise teachers to transform education: How tackling the global teacher shortage can unlock the UK’s development agenda’

Changkuoth, Ter, 26, is a grade 4 science teacher. He joined Tierkidi School No. 3, Refugee Camp in 2014.

Credit: UNICEF Ethiopia / 2018 / Mersha